Film

New Year Baby

New Year Baby is a 2006 documentary by Socheata Poeuv about her family's survival of the Khmer Rouge and their new life in the United States.[1][2] Poeuv was born on Cambodian New Year in a refugee camp in Thailand and grew up in the United States without knowing what her family had lived through.[2]

Synopsis

After the Khmer Rouge years, Poeuv's family fled to a refugee camp in Thailand, where she was born. They later moved to Texas and built a new life for themselves and their children.[1] At Christmas in 2002, her mother revealed a family secret.[3] Mala and Leakhena, whom Poeuv had known as her sisters, were her cousins. Her brother Scott was a half-brother, and her mother had been married before.[3] The family had been put together from the pieces of an extended family broken when relatives were killed in the genocide.[1]

Mala and Leakhena had been taken with their parents to a Khmer Rouge labor camp. Their father was taken away when they arrived, and they never saw him again. Their mother died of starvation soon after, and Poeuv's mother adopted them. Poeuv's mother had a husband and a son when she was taken to the camp. After her husband was killed, she went on caring for her son and the two girls. In the camp she met Poeuv's father, and a Khmer Rouge cadre married them.[1] Her mother is the daughter of a banker of ethnic Chinese heritage, and her father is a former soldier in the Cambodian army.[4]

Poeuv's parents invited her and Scott to Cambodia to meet relatives.[3] On the journey they visit her parents' hometowns, surviving relatives on both sides of the family, the labor camp where her parents met, and the place where Mala and Leakhena's mother was buried, near the camp latrine.[1][3] Poeuv also visits the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Angkor Wat, Pol Pot's burial site, the site of the Thai refugee camp where she was born, and the homes of former Khmer Rouge cadres.[5] She meets Son Soeum, the former Khmer Rouge district chief for the area of the camps where her family was held.[4] When her mother stops answering questions on camera, Poeuv continues the journey with her father.[5]

The film tells how, after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Mala and Leakhena were separated from their adoptive parents. Poeuv's father searched for months before he found them. He then led the whole family through minefields and across the Thai border to the camp where Poeuv was born.[1] At a Buddhist temple, Poeuv and her father complete the ritual for a new child. The film ends in Texas, where Poeuv brings out a wedding cake to celebrate the wedding her parents were never allowed to have.[1]

Production and credits

Poeuv has said, "I started making this film out of a curiosity about my family's history." At first, she said, it was still a "glorified home video."[4] She wrote the film with Charles Vogl, who produced it.[1][6] Jason Bolling was the cinematographer and traveled with her in Cambodia. Sandra Christie edited the film, and Gil Talmi composed the music.[1][3] Animation by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger shows Poeuv's childhood fears and dramatic reenactments.[3][5] The film was made on a budget of $330,000.[7]

The production companies were Broken English Productions, Dark Matter Creative and the Center for Asian American Media.[8] The film runs 80 minutes.[1] The ITVS version runs 53 minutes, and one reviewer gives 74 minutes.[4][7]

Release and reception

The film premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in November 2006. It was an IDFA Top 10 Audience Pick, and in 2007 it won the IDFA "Movies That Matter" Award, an initiative of Amnesty International.[1] It aired nationally on PBS in 2008, in the Independent Lens series.[1][9] ITVS also brought it to audiences through its Community Cinema program.[4] Its other awards include:[10]

  • Best Documentary, 25th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
  • Best Documentary, AFI Dallas International Film Festival
  • Audience Award, Los Angeles VC Film Festival
  • Audience Award and Special Jury Award, Asian American International Film Festival
  • Crystal Heart Award, Heartland Film Festival[7]

Watch

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Wikipedia
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 PBS, Independent Lens: New Year Baby
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 PopMatters, Independent Lens: New Year Baby (2008-05-27)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 ITVS, New Year Baby discussion guide
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 international.ucla.edu, VC Film Fest 2007 capsules - documentaries (2007-05-11)
  6. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes, New Year Baby
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The Independent Critic, New Year Baby review
  8. ↑ IMDb, New Year Baby (2006) ⭐ 8.4 - Documentary (2025-08-01)
  9. ↑ PBS
  10. ↑ Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., New Year Baby - Wikipedia (2011-04-30)

Sources

Retrieved from "https://dev.khmerconnection.com/w/index.php?title=New_Year_Baby&oldid=8424"
This page was last edited on 27 September 2026, at 06:00.